Heart rate monitor in the cold
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Hi Suunto community,
I get very inaccurate HR using the watch sensor (not the strap) when I am ski touring/walking up a mountain, in winter tenperature that are pretty mild around 0 celsius.
My watch measures my heart rate between 80 and 120 but when I manually measure my HR at my carotid, I get results between 150 and 160bpm.
Is that a common problem to have or is my Peak Pro 9 defective?
I downgraded the software and got the same issue.
Thank you! -
@dhameljolette watch OHR can be very inaccurate in some situations, so don’t worry, probably you’re 9PP is working fine!
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@dhameljolette this is typical. OHR is reliable when stationary and with relatively warm conditions. When it’s cold, there’s less blood going to your hands, making OHR unreliable. You may also have plenty of clothes layers which can move the watch on your wrist.
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I’m not sure it helps, but I find my Vertical OHR a bit more accurate in the cold if I raise it just a bit more away from my wrist bone.
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Look at my HR readings from today’s walk:
It oscillates between ~110 and 80, neither of which is true.
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@dhameljolette said in Heart rate monitor in the cold:
Hi Suunto community,
I get very inaccurate HR using the watch sensor (not the strap) when I am ski touring/walking up a mountain, in winter tenperature that are pretty mild around 0 celsius.
My watch measures my heart rate between 80 and 120 but when I manually measure my HR at my carotid, I get results between 150 and 160bpm.
Is that a common problem to have or is my Peak Pro 9 defective?
I downgraded the software and got the same issue.
Thank you!I don’t own a 9PP myself, but I am consider to buy the 9PP OR the Race S. After doing quite some research, it seems that the OHR on the 9PP isn’t perfect. The Race S seems to have a better OHR. However, leaving the Race S aside, from what I have seen in reviews on the 9PP this is what I have noted:
When the reviewers show their graphs, running with the 9PP alongside other heart rate monitors (straps, other watches, …) on the same run, it seems usually that the 9PP have problems at the beginning of the run, while later on doing pretty well. My initial thought on this is that it is due to the fact that the sensor on the 9PP isn’t perfect - and at the beginning of the runs, people might be colder etc, it has problem getting an accurate read. However, after running for a moment, and people get warm with all what that means (slight swelling, clock sits tighter etc etc) the 9PP does a decent job.
So my interpretation is that your 9PP is probably not broken. And I would prefer the 9PP over the Race S, but this is one of the downsides with the 9PP.
Try placing the watch tighter and perhaps a bit higher up on your arm (I know it doesn’t sound to comfortable) but I think that is the best you can do.
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I am quite happy with my 9pp. When starting activity skitouring or cross country skiing or any activities basically I tighten up the strap. Usually keep the watch covered with clothes.
I experienced bigger problems in summer when sweat accumulates under the watch making OHR unreliable.
But then again if you are seriously interested in using HR for training get a HR chest strap.
Wrist HR will never be as accurate as chest HR and therefore should be used as a rough guideline only.
Just my thoughts on the topic -
Hi, thanks for your reply everyone.
Just to clarify, I do tighten up the strap before my outing and the watch is at least 1 finger away from my wrist bone.My actual HR when I go uphill is usually between 140 and 165 but my OHR is between 80 and 120 even when the watch is covered by my coat/gloves and my hands feel warm. This happens for a entire 3 or 4 hours when doing single lap of 1000 to 1500m of vertical gain.
I’m wondering if my OHR is defective and try to warranty it or just use the chest strap.
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@SergioB thanks!
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@Łukasz-Szmigiel thanks
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@dhameljolette said in Heart rate monitor in the cold:
This happens for a entire 3 or 4 hours when doing single lap of 1000 to 1500m of vertical gain.
Are you maybe using poles? Sometimes I experienced a sort of cadence locking, therefore wrong HR readings, while training with poles on steep climbs (the watch was properly tightened up above the wrist bone).
